Personal and Professional Development - Assignment Example

February 11, Personal/Professional Development Task Learning (Self-Management) In the store environment,my self –learning is how to serve the needs of the customers to improve my self-worth (Pritchard, 2013). The company is small grocery store. The store sells typical everyday personal items. My self-learning was grounded on learning the locations of each grocery product. Likewise, my learning included knowing how to create camaraderie among the other store staff. Another learning issue was determining when to order the next inventory items from the grocery store suppliers. Lastly, my learning included knowing how to create a friendly conversation with the grocery stores’ current and future customers. Further, there are several benefits from my self-learning activities. By learning the location of each item displayed in the store premises or in the storeroom area, time needed to locate the items in the future will be saved (Pritchard, 2013). Saved inventory time equates to more time serving the purchase needs of the store customers, increasing store revenues. Further, employee camaraderie leads to cooperation and help among the store staff and management, reducing time needed to help customers. In addition learning when to order the next store inventory item will ensure customers will always get find what they are buying. One very frustrating issue is the customer’s finding that the store is out of stock. If the customer sees the empty store shelf, the customers will transfer to a competing community store, creating lost store sales opportunities. Further, sales self learning increases customer service quality. Task 2 Development (Professional & Personal) Chart 1 Competencies & Skills (Personal) Needed Professional Skills I can easily adapt to any situation I need additional training in advanced salesmanship. I have adequate Academic knowledge related to the basic grocery store. I need additional training in inventory management. I am a fast learner of new concepts needed to accomplish my current and future tasks and responsibilities I need additional training in the preparation of financial Statement as well as interpretation of the prepared financial reports. PERSONAL SWOT (Griffin, 2015) Chart 2 Factor Explanation Strengths I can easily adapt to any situation. I have adequate academic knowledge related to the basic grocery store procedures. I am a fast learner of new concepts needed to accomplish my current and future tasks and responsibilities Weaknesses I need additional training in inventory management. I need additional training in advanced salesmanship. I need additional training in the preparation of financial Statement as well as interpretation of the prepared financial reports. Opportunities I have the opportunity to set up my own grocery store. After mastering everything needed to set up and profitably manage a marketing entity. The proposed entity can be a grocery, retail store, food outlet or other marketing entity. Threats Uncooperative employees threaten (reduce) the speed of my self-learning. Uncooperative employee may not deliver the information needed for my faster self-learning activities. Some customers threaten my learning experiences. We cannot please everyone. However, marketing self-learning showed me that the customer is always correct at all times. Thus, I am forced to keep quiet and do my best to please all types of customers. Development Plan (Personal & Professional) (Griffin, 2015). First, I will use my strengths to overcome my weaknesses based on the above SWOT factors (Griffin, 2015). Reading books on inventory management will enhance my inventory management self knowledge. Likewise I will read books on how to prepare reports. In addition, I will study books that will help me understood the prepared financial reports. Second, I will use my strengths to ensure overcoming all threats to my self-learning activities (Griffin, 2015). Reading marketing and salesmanship books will train me to be better customer-based business person. The sales books will help me say the right words to the customers. Further, my strengths allow me to make presently uncooperative employees cooperative. Reading books business communication books will help me build friendships with my store companions. Third, I will use my strengths to ensure implementation of my opportunities (Griffin, 2015). I will study books on how to set up and profitably manage my own business, including a grocery store. Further, my self-development plans will include using relevant books to enhance my self-development. The books will be relevant to my self-learning priorities. Some self-development books will focus on marketing concepts. The marketing books will train me act more appropriately to current and future customers. Other self-development books will focus on financial statement and other related accounting topics. The financial statement books will explain how the income statement and balance sheet books will train me to make my own sets of income statements and balance sheets. Additional self-development books will cover interpersonal communication. The financial report and accounting books will resolve my current financial report preparation weakness. Further, my self-learning includes using other books to overcome my self-learning weaknesses (Griffin, 2015). I will use books that focus on overcoming my inventory management weaknesses. One book will focus on the different inventory count processes. The inventory books will show which store products are classified as fast selling items. In the same manner, the inventory books will help indicate and resolve slow-moving inventories. One book places importance on a first come first serve inventory management. Likewise, one book espouses that the inventory counts will be used to determine whether the sales reports show the correct, true, or fair dollar amounts. In addition, my self-learning will include reading marketing books (Griffin, 2015). The marketing books will ensure my new marketing-based business will generate high profits. The marketing books will show me how to best display the store products in order to increase the store’s current revenues. The marketing books will help me choose which products should be prioritised in the selling process. One feasibility study book will help me conduct surveys. The book will show how to construct the survey questionnaire, distribute the survey questionnaire, how to generate the statistical findings, and how to interpret the survey findings. The same feasibility study book will help me use the survey findings as basis for determining which store products should be sold. The survey and feasibility activities will ensure that my store is responsive to the store needs of the target market segment. The survey book will help me determine how to use surveys as basis for determining the selling prices of the current and future store products. Moreover, I will use the same marketing books to self-learn the best store price strategies (Lamb, 2010). The same self-learning books explain that the store prices should be taken into consideration the store prices of the competitors’ selling prices. Likewise, a research based on relevant economics concept books will ensure that supply concept will be used as basis for pegging the store products’ selling prices. Similarly, the same economics concept books will help ensure that the demand concepts will help ensure the product prices will be used as basis for pricing the store’s products. Task 3 Plan for Development (Professional & Personal) My development plan, both professional and personal, is correct. My self-help plans will ensure my self-learning will ensure managing a profitable store (Shaughnessy, 2013). The marketing books will correctly ensure the store sales will increase because the store will implement the marketing books’ customer-based pricing policies. The same marketing books will rightfully help me to act properly in relation to serving the store product needs of the current and future customers. Further, my self-learning shows the use of financial report books will correctly explain to me how the financial reports are prepared (Lamb, 2010). Consequently, the accounting books will rightfully explain to me how to interpret the income statement, balance sheet, and other related financial reports. The additional self-development books will correctly enhance my interpersonal communications with both store personnel and current and future customers. Further, other books will correctly reduce or eliminate my self-learning weaknesses. The inventory books will correctly enhance my current inventory management weakness. The same books will correctly help me generate high store revenues. High revenues will translate to high store net profits. The marketing books correctly help me take advantage of available opportunities (Spalton, 2010). The opportunities include generating revenues. The marketing books correctly help me focus on products that are the current and future customers’ preferred store entity products. Another book on feasibility study will perfectly help me predict which store products will generate the highest revenues and which products will generate the lowest possible revenues within one accounting period. Further, the relevant reference books will help explain the importance of surveys as basis for choosing which products should be displayed on the store’s display areas. The survey book rightfully helps me use the competitors’ prices as basis for pricing my store products. Likewise, the same research will correctly help me use relevant economics books as basis to determine the current and future customers’ product demand preferences. The preferences will serve as basis for my choosing which products should be displayed in the store shelves. The same marketing books will correctly help me overcome store threats. In addition, my work achievements will be correctly used as basis for revising my current store activities (Schermerhorn, 2010). Comparing my expected self-learning objectives and my actual learning will correctly ensure that I will focus my learning efforts on areas that need improvement. For example, the marketing books will help me diffuse the complaining customer’s issues. If my actual work outputs left some weaknesses, take advantage of some cropping up opportunities, and reduce some threats to allowable levels, I will correctly take the appropriate actions to reduce further the remaining threats, weaknesses, and take advantage of the remaining opportunities. Consequently, my consequent actions will ensure the remaining lack of knowledge in the fields of inventory management and customer-based actions will be reduced further. If my actual actions far exceed my prescribed self-learning goals and objectives, I will refocus my attention on attending on areas where the actual outputs are less than the prescribed self-learning outputs. Task 4 Skills (Impersonal). One work related problem relates to customer relations (Lamb, 2010). Some of the employees are not trained entertain complaining customers. They do not care whether the customers leave the store due to some unsatisfactory store personnel services. Since the employees are not trained in marketing concepts, the employees use their lackluster common sense in dealing with current and future customers. Further, solutions can be implemented to remedy the situation (Lamb, 2010). First, only customer-friendly or outgoing personally applicants will be hired for the store sales position. Fur the current employees, sales training seminars will regularly be held to train and update the store personnel. The training will help the employees deliver customer-based services. Second, during peak hours, one part time employee should be hired. The hiring of the part time employee will ensure that each customer is well served. Well served means giving enough time for each employee to deal with the current and future customers’ queries and purchase needs. Lastly, a monthly top employee reward system will be in place. The reward will encourage all employees to do their best to be the next months’ top store employee. Further, time management is found wanting in the current store situation (Griffin, 2015). During peak hours, customers have to spend an average of 15 minutes waiting to be served by the store cashier. Consequently, it is highly recommended that one additional part time employee will be hired. The part time employee will ensure the customer line is reduced to allowable levels, reducing the customers’ waiting time during peak hours. Task 5 Class Presentation Task 1 Learning (Self-Management) In the store environment, my self –learning includes how to serve the needs of the customers in my community’s grocery store (Pritchard, 2013). By learning the location of each item and creating favourable camaraderie among the store employees, time needed to serve the customers’ needs is reduced. Self-learning includes inventory management and customer conversation. Task 2 Development [Professional & Personal] (Pritchard, 2013) Chart 1 Competencies & Skills (Personal) Needed Professional Skills I am able to adapt to any store situation I need more training to improve my salesmanship capability. I have adequate academic knowledge on how to work within a grocery store. I need additional training on how to manage inventory. I am a fast learner of relevant new business-based concepts required for every tasks and responsibility. I need additional training on how to prepare and understand financial reports. PERSONAL SWOT (Griffin, 2015) Chart 2 Factor Explanation Strengths I can easily adapt to any unexpected situation. I have the required academic knowledge related to the fundamental grocery store operations. I am a fast learner of new concepts needed to accomplish my current and future tasks and responsibilities Weaknesses I need additional training in inventory management. I need more training in customer-based advanced salesmanship. I need additional training in the making of income statements and balance sheets and interpreting the financial reports. Opportunities I have the opportunity to set up put up my own grocery store. After learning the concepts of putting up and profitably manage a marketing unit. Threats Some uncooperative employees threaten (reduce) my self-learning speed. Some customers threaten my self-learning learning experiences. Development Plan (Personal & Professional) My development plans include using my strengths to overcome my weaknesses, take advantage of opportunities, and remove threats (Griffin, 2015). Reading books on inventory management, marketing knowledge will enhance my customer relation skills, including appeasing unfriendly or complaining customers. Reading books will help me prepare and understand financial reports. The economics books will help me peg the right demand-based prices of the store’s displayed items. Task 3 Plan for Development (Professional & Personal) My development plan, both professional and personal, is correct. My self-help plans will ensure my self-learning will ensure managing a profitable store (Shaughnessy, 2013). The marketing books will correctly ensure the store sales will increase because the store will implement the marketing books’ customer-based pricing policies. The same marketing books will rightfully help me to act properly in relation to serving the store customers’ needs. Using books focusing on learning the rudiments of financial report will correctly enhance my financial report interpretation acumen. The inventory books will correctly enhance my current inventory management weakness. The marketing books will correctly help me generate high store revenues. High revenues will translate to high store net profits. The marketing books correctly help take advantage of upcoming opportunities. The marketing books will help me diffuse the complaining customer’s issues. Task 4 Skills (Impersonal). Since the employees are not trained in marketing concepts, hiring qualified employees and training the current employees on marketing issues will increase customer service quality. The untrained employees use their common sense to deal with current and future customers (Lamb, 2010). Hiring a part time employee during peak hours will reduce the customer’s time paying for their purchases. References: Griffin, R., 2015, Fundamentals of Management, London: Cengage Learning Press. Lamb, C.,2010, Essentials of Marketing, London: Cengage Learning Press. Pritchard, A.,2013, Ways of Learning,. London: Routledge Press. Schermerhorn, J., 2010, Management, London: J. Wiley & Sons Press. Shaughnessy, J. O., 2013, Patterns of Business Organisation, London: Routledge Press. Spalton, P., 2010, Marketing, London: Collins Press. Read More